by Sara Rubin
One of the services that Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula provides is what you probably think of when you hear the name. Volunteers assemble to pick up meals, load them into their cars, then drive around town delivering food on 35 routes to homebound seniors, making sure they have something to eat.
But after those volunteers leave mid-morning, the kitchen crew keeps working. Instead of boxed meals, they plate the food. Out front, tables are set with flowers; once or twice a month, a band sets up to play; cloth napkins are folded at each place setting. Every day, Monday-Friday, anyone who is mobile are invited to partake in the same meals in a dining-room setting. Glenn McKee, 75, arrives right on time to the same table he’s occupied nearly daily for going on five years. “This is my seat,” he says. “The meals are excellent.”
On this particular day, the first course is a subtle carrot-ginger soup, followed by a chicken puttanesca entree. It’s the right combination of salty and tangy one expects from puttanesca sauce, and it leans chunky rather than saucy, with healthy pieces of tomato and carrot. It’s served over brown rice instead of the more traditional pasta – besides culinary preference, there are nutrition guidelines to follow and a specific, older audience’s preferences to keep in mind.
“We are required to supply whole grains,” Executive Chef Isaiah Cortright says. “Also, rice is easier to chew – a lot of my clients prefer it [to pasta].” His biggest goal is to keep the menu interesting enough for regulars, but likable enough to please everyone – there is just one main course on each day’s menu. “We like to do some things a little different and creatively,” Cortright adds.
The kitchen crew brings serious culinary credentials. Cortright has experience in Michelin-starred kitchens. Sous Chef Chase Ewing came up through Rancho Cielo Youth Campus’ Drummond Culinary Academy then worked locally at establishments like the Marriott.
“I think our food is pretty delicious,” says Development Director Esther Hobbs. “I eat it every day.”
The lunch menu includes local fish when available, via Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust. Recent menus featured chicken parmesan, potato-onion frittata and Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes; smoked bison brisket was a big hit. The multi-course service starts with coffee and ends with dessert (two cookies on this particular day).
The food is indeed a draw, but regulars say it’s about something else.
“The food is good here, but the company is spectacular,” says 79-year-old Karen, who declines to give her last name to protect her privacy. Her tablemate, McKee, agrees: “It’s food, and it’s friendship.”
This is not just their perception – it’s science. The National Institute on Aging reports that social isolation and loneliness are associated with higher risk of heart disease, depression and cognitive decline. Providing gathering spaces for older adults to share a meal and a story – and some days, live music – is a direct response to those medical challenges. For these reasons, Meals on Wheels receives some government funding thanks to the Older Americans Act.
This is far from the only local organization to offer similar group meals for seniors. The Carmel Foundation offers curbside pick-up and sit-down lunches four days a week. Entrees this month include garlic-maple chicken, baked ziti and coq au vin. The nonprofit expanded its meal program to the four-day-a-week model in 1981, when the late Marion Robotti was on the board. “The lunch program is about much more than good food. The sense of comradeship is just as important,” Robotti said, according to a Carmel Foundation timeline.
At Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula, both McKee and Karen approve of the chicken puttanesca, but McKee has an added mission – sharing treats with his Australian terrier, Cappie. He pulls the meat off of his plate and puts it in a plastic cup as a doggie bag for later.
